Hello and welcome to the first War Patrol of the USS Narwhal (SS-167), a brand new submarine that is a new class of submarines based upon a modified Tambor class submarine. We've been playing the War Patrols of the USS Tambor but I've stopped those missions for now since they survived to 1943 and I'm planning on playing each submarine one year at a time so today we begin the USS Narwhal.
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| USS Narwhal (SS-167) |
In real life, the USS Narwhal was commanded by Lieutenant Commander John H. Brown Jr. In our game the USS Narwhal will be based out of Pearl Harbor, just like in real life.
Here's a picture of the USS Narwhal during the Pearl Harbor attack, the submarine survived the attack and was able to start War Patrols against the Japanese.
Once the Narwhal has been outfitted with food and weapons the sub leaves Pearl Harbor for their first War Patrol through the Marshall Islands.
The patrol starts off slow with no contact with any planes as the Narwhal transits from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Islands. Midway through the patrol, the lookouts spot a convoy on the horizon.
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| Convoy |
The captain decides to submerge and tail the convoy until the sunsets. Once the sky is dark the Narwhal surfaces and begins to line up shots on the closest three ships of the convoy. The three ships are a small 1300 ton freighter named the Seinan Maru, a large 5200-ton freighter named the Kimishima Maru, and a large 8500-ton troop transport named the Mizuho Maru.
Lt Commander Brown decides to fire three fore torpedoes each at the large freighter and troop transport before turning the sub around and firing four aft torpedoes, two at the small freighter and one torpedo each at the large ships.
When the shots are lined up the Captain fires his torpedoes. The first six torpedoes all hit doing considerable damage to the targets. The captain swings the sub around and fires the four aft torpedoes. The two fired at the small freighter hit and sink it while the lone torpedoes fired at each large ship miss.
Not sure how Cmd. Brown is named in this narrative. The first CO on Narwhal's patrols was LT. Cmd. Wilkins. Check the facts.
ReplyDeleteCommander Brown was the first skipper of the Narwhal, that's why I used him but you are correct that Wilkins was the commander at the beginning of the war.
DeleteFirst War Patrol
ReplyDeleteNarwhal turned to place the tanker ahead and dived to make a periscope attack because of the moonlight. At 0008 on 28 February, Narwhal fired two torpedoes on an estimated 90 degree track at a range of l,000 yards. Randy was nervous. This was his first war action. Two heavy explosions and a sharp crack were heard. A periscope sweep confirmed the kill. The ship, Maju Maru , was seen to settle and take a heavy list and Captain Wilkins considered her to be in a sinking condition. Blue lights were seen at the water’s edge near the bow and stern, presumably from lifeboats.
Narwhal surfaced and continued with her ordered patrol. With ventilation flowing through the hull, the crew were able to relax and sleep was generally peaceful. Narwal maintained a surface speed of 8-10knots. The seas were light.
BATTLE STATIONS!
On March 1 at 2340, a steamer, later identified as the Taki Maru, was seen on a cloudless moonlit night. Narwhal submerged and turned to heading 275. Running at periscope depth, Narwhal lined up on the steamer and fired four forward torpedoes. Thirty-five seconds later, two explosions were felt in Narwhal. The CO confirmed hits and announced the steamer settled bow down. Fourteen minutes later the stern slipped below the surface. Resumed patrol duties and cleared the area to the west.
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